- [Ian] In the early evening of December 11th, 2023, Peter Neronha was on the road when he heard about the sudden emergency closing of the Washington Bridge.

- I was really startled by it and I remember my first reaction being, this must be pretty bad for them to be acting this way with so little notice.

They being, you know, the governor and Peter Alviti.

- [Ian] Neronha wasn't the only one startled by the abrupt closing, but there were warning signs long before December, 2023, and the state last year sued 13 companies that did work related to the bridge.

The Providence Journal reported in April that there had been warnings about the condition of the bridge as far back as 2009 continuing through 2015.

Does that show that the state should have been monitoring the status of the bridge more carefully?

- The position that we've taken, as the attorneys for the state, in our lawsuit is that when we hire experts to do the work, that we're just not, we're just not capable or trained to do, that's why they're called experts.

In any kind of litigation, you are relying on those experts to tell you one of two things.

Either it's fixable and here's how to fix it or it's not fixable and you better get ready to replace it.

And our position in the litigation is that that didn't happen.

- The state's lawsuit says the defendants failed to act in a timely way to address worsening structural issues that led to the abrupt emergency closing of the bridge.

Why was it not the state that had to be ultimately more responsible for that?

- That is the battleground on which this lawsuit will play out.

This is why you hire an expert.

If you hire an expert to tell you something about the condition of the bridge, what its future looks like, whether it needs to be replaced, if it needs to be repaired, how, then they're ultimately responsible if they don't give you the kinds of answers that they should have given, you know, based on their expertise and knowledge.

That's why we hire them.

- What do you say to Rhode Islanders who question why some of the companies being sued by the state as part of this lawsuit, like Aetna, are continuing to work for the state?

- Whether or not the state has confidence in them is a question best left for the governor.

I will say that the governor has had some difficulty getting this plane off the ground, and maybe that's why he's gone in the direction he did.

- RIDOT director Peter Alviti spoke a couple of weeks ago to a joint legislative meeting of oversight committees.

He was not sworn in and he was kind of given a pass to not talk about what went wrong with the bridge and how it happened because of the lawsuit.

Did that process make sense to you?

- The better approach is to put witnesses under oath.

That's how you get truth out of them.

- Is it your view that putting someone under oath is a better path to the truth because they could face consequences for perjury if they're found to be dishonest?

- Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

The legislature, in my view, should not be giving witnesses the out of not being put under oath.

- [Ian] Neronha says the state's bridge lawsuit does not block RIDOT director Alviti from doing interviews about the situation.

- Well, I think he has to be careful.

You know, there are certain things as part of our litigation strategy, we want those things to play out in court.

We don't want them to play out in the press.

But I think general questions about the state's approach to how it ensures that Rhode Islanders can feel safe on their roads and bridges, you know, is fair game.

- The bridge has been arguably the top story in Rhode Island since the abrupt emergency closing.

Director Alviti has generally avoided long form interviews to talk about the situation.

Do you think that's the right approach for a public official in his position?

- Well, look, I think it's the right approach for any public official is to be accessible to the media.

You know, I prefer long form because I feel like the decisions that I make, I wanna be in a position to explain them.

I think the public has that right and I think it serves the office well.

I can't speak for others, but whether it's Mr. Alviti or the governor, accessibility shouldn't be based on the timing of the public official.

The media is the means by which we speak to the people who elected us, and it's why I think the better approach is to be always accessible.

- When will Rhode Islanders get accountability for what went wrong with the bridge?

- It depends on what Rhode Islanders and we mean about accountability.

- [Ian] Neronha says if accountability is about what went wrong with the structure, it will come through the state's lawsuit.

- When we're talking about how the Department of Transportation should have functioned in this environment, that's really a question for the governor.

It's one of his executive agencies to determine whether or not he feels like the people running DOT, over this period of time that he was governor and and beforehand, if he inherited it, warrants a change or a change in approach.

- What is the timeline for the state's lawsuit to move forward and ultimately be resolved one way or another?

- I think short of settlement, if there's a trial in this case, my understanding is that we're probably looking at summer into 2027, which for your everyday Rhode Islander is gonna seem outlandish, but the reality is, whether it's a civil case or a criminal case, cases move very slowly through our state system and there's a lot of defendants here and a lot of discovery still to take, a lot of motion practice still to do, a lot of depositions to take.

So, I would say that we're probably looking at 2026 or 2027 for a trial date.

- [Ian] Neronha's time as Attorney General will end in January, 2027 due to term limits.

He says if the lawsuit is settled out of court, it should not restrict the public's right to know.

- Hopefully it'll be resolved before I leave office, but you know, we're coming, for me, it's coming close.

But yeah, my view would be that they would be public records and the public should be allowed to see them.

- You are involved with some of your fellow Democratic Attorneys General in a lot of litigation with the Trump administration.

How confident are you that Rhode Island will ultimately receive the money appropriated for the bridge under the previous Biden administration?

- My confidence level is mixed, I guess I would say.

I worry that if this money is not obligated already by the federal government in a way that would allow us to recover it, we may be left holding a very empty bag.

So it does concern me.

You know, the governor has assured the public that that money will be there in the end.

I hope he's right about that.

I hope he's been diligent enough in trying to make sure that it does come.

- In conclusion, what is your view of when the new Washington Bridge will be online and when Rhode Islanders will get the full story of how the closing of the bridge, what led to that and what went wrong?

- I think it's gonna take some time.

You know, I really do, on both things.

You know, I think as the litigation proceeds, certainly there will be some public expose, I think, of what went wrong here.

The actual delivery of the product?

Really frustrating for me as it is for many Rhode Islanders.

It has taken far too long.

I don't think anyone can seriously dispute that.

The track record here, frankly, isn't very good.

- Attorney General Peter Neronha, thank you for sitting down with us.

- Thanks, Ian.